Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Back to a full Beer Week schedule of events now that Blues and Brews and Memorial have passed. Starting off, we have another cheese-centric pairing, this one at Tractor Wells Park with Cheesy Street. Trays of 4 mini grilled cheese sandwiches paired with Tractor beers will be available beginning at 3. $13 fee for this one. And to the first person who can tell me what movie that picture is from gets a beer from my collection. Email, Facebook message, whatever.

Hitachino, Coedo and Miyazaki Hideji. Those are not the newest Street Fighter characters, though they sure do pack a punch! Ha.
Jubilation hosts a free tasting from these Japanese breweries on Tuesday from 4-6.

Rio Bravo gets in on the Taco Tuesday craze by offering $1 tacos from Mariam's Tacos along with $5 flights that include DRB IPA, Randy's Red, German Sommer, and Pilsner, beginning at 5:30.

An all fancy beer dinner at Ponderosa. The place is still cranking out beer even though a number of brewers have come and gone. I hope they can keep going, and this $45 beer dinner ($40 for mug club members) sounds like a good one: Sour Saison with Charcuterie Plate, Crosscut Kölsch with Scallop Salad, Red Rye Lager with Wild Mushroom Risotto and Braised Lamb Shank, and Chocolate Stout with Pot de Creme. 7 pm.

A Kill the Keg event at brat haven The Grain Station! Upslope and Santa Fe Brewing go head to head beginning at 6. Whichever brewery's keg is emptied first wins. The other brewery is just the wurst.

Two Fools continues to get in special kegs for the week. Today features Oscar Worthy Coffee from New Belgium's Lips of Faith series. A foeder of dark sour Oscar was blended with 50 lbs. of The Bean Cycle's coffee. The keg will tap at 4. For those of you who are saying, "Who the f### gets off work at 4? By the time I get there, it will be gone! Why do all the tappings start so early?" I AGREE. In fact, I may be the only one saying this. But I know there are a lot of you in the service industry and other occupations where you work later in the day but are really into beer and would like to take part in these events. I'm going to lobby for some later tap times in the future.

Go taste some bad beer at Albuquerque Brewing Company! Head Brewer Carnie will host a talk about and tasting of off flavors in beer. That way, next time you notice something tastes not quite right at a brewery, you can bring it to the attention of the brewer. They will be sure to take it in a non-defensive manner and thank you profusely.

Monday, May 30, 2016

Happy Memorial Day, and another happy Beer Week day. Red Door combines a special Beer Week event with a fundraiser for those we are honoring today. From the Red Door folks themselves, "Please join Red Door Brewing Co. and the Rio Grande Patriots for our inaugural fundraising event to sponsor The Folds of Honor Foundation. Of the one million-plus dependents adversely affected by deployments, nearly nine out of 10 do not qualify for federal scholarship assistance. Since 2007, the Folds of Honor has carried forth this singular, noble mission. To close the gap, providing educational support to spouses and children of America's fallen and wounded soldiers. Over 80% of funds go directly to recipients. Red Door will be donating 20% of sales and representatives will be on hand to accept additional donations. Come on out and be a part of something great." The event goes from 12-4.

Rio Bravo will be honoring vets and current enlisted military by giving them $2 off pints. Also, Rio Bravo barrel-aged Belgian Strong Ale and barrel-aged Porter will be tapped at Two Fools at 4.

Memorial Day cornhole tournament with the folks from Upslope Brewing at Rock and Brews from 2-5. Come out and play the game with the worst name ever and drink some pretty good Boulder, CO beers. Maybe win a keychain.

Keeping with the theme of "Cheesiest Beer Week Ever", Albuquerque Brewing Co. will host a cheese, beer, and boards event from 6-8. The boards involved are not of the skate kind, which is probably for the best. Beer can have the dangerous side effect of making grown men think they can still pull off the tricks they used to do when they were riding around on their Powell Peralta Mike McGill model board (and they weren't very good at it back then, either). The boards for this event are board games, a much safer way to pass the time while drinking. And I'd like to take this moment to admit that I was wrong about Empire Board Game Library. I saw that place open in Nob Hill and thought there was no way a concept like that could last, but they are packed every time I pass by. People are having fun without alcohol...who knew such a thing was possible?

Friday, May 27, 2016

Marble, 2nd Street, Santa Fe, Tractor, Turtle Mountain, Boxing Bear, Bosque, Red Door, and La Cumbre all came together to create the 505 Collaboration beer, a rye Kellerbier. This is the first time that I can remember the local breweries making a Beer Week beer that wasn't some form of a hoppy Red Ale. All the breweries involved will have the beer on tap. $1 from each pint sold goes to benefit the NM Brewers Guild, which eventually comes back to benefit you. Socialism.

It's perfect cookout weather, and Albuquerque Brewing Company is breaking out the brats for a day of beer and brats. The brats will all be cooked in ABC's beer, and cost five bucks a plate. They are then going to chill the beer the brats were boiled in and sell it for $10 a pint. Not really. I have to add that disclaimer because someone will read it and say, "Really??"

Former Left Hand Head Brewer Ro Guenzel wasn't a fan of the IPAs. He's at Great Divide now, and Left Hand is trying their hand at American IPAs. About time. Extrovert IPA tapped at Two Fools at 4.

$5 flights and BBQ at Rio Bravo on Friday from 4-9. Also, hand-rolled cigars made to order...that's unique. Not my thing, but I don't like collared shirts either.

New Belgium Lips of Faith Collaboration with Hof Ten Dormaal on tap at Gecko's in Nob Hill. A Belgian Golden Ale with Mosaic hops, sunflower seeds, and carrot herbs. A salad in a glass from 5-7.

Raja DIPA and Maharaja bigger DIPA on tap at Nob Hill Bar and Grill tonight...What's that stuff like fresh? I can't remember because we only have cans of 12/15 Raja and bottles of 8/15 Maharaja in stores. Come on, Avery. Make your distributor keep the same high standards that you do for your beer.

15 Ballast Point beers take over the taps at Stereo Bar. Go so you can say, "I drank allthe different fruity Ballast Point beers here before it became a tequila bar with collared shirt guys smoking cigars."Event begins at 6.

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Keeping the chatter short. You all know the deal: OVER a week of Beer Week events to keep you hitting that snooze button until you just can't hear the alarm anymore. That's right...just sleeeep it off...

Some of Thursday's highlights:

Nice to see Spinn's Burgers and Beer getting in on the Beer Week action. They were offering up a large selection of beer while this town was filling up on Coronas. Tapping a keg of Marble's Saison to kick off the week.

Best friends? Boese Brothers teams up with Santa Fe Brewing Co. to brew a Double Barrel Porter, which will be tapped at SFBC's Green Jeans location at 3. Sweet. Now if SFBC could collaborate with someone for a good parking situation, I'd be there more often. Yeah, I could ride my bike, but hills get in the way.

A firkin at Anodyne?? Times are a changing! I remember trying to get George on the Beer Week bandwagon years ago, and now he's allowing firkins...what's next, dogs running around the bar?? Abita melds their Turbodog Brown Ale with Horchata to create a rare paring (only firkin of it in NM).

Marble again welcomes one of the original Beer Week events, Beer, Cheese, and More! to their downtown location at 5. $25 gets you, well, beer, cheese, and more. They always break out some vintage kegs for this event. Some tickets still remain.

Jubilation also hosts a beer and cheese event today, this one featuring La Cumbre beers. Strawberry Gose, Elevated IPA, Red Ryeot, Malpais Stout, Slice of Hefen, and Project Dank all will be poured and paired with different cheeses. Free.

It's a beautiful thing when breweries send special kegs for Beer Week. Getting them to do it willingly isn't always easy. But Barrel-Aged Piper Down Scottish Ale from Ballast Point is heading to Nob Hill Bar and Grill. Event is slated to run from 6-8.

O'Niell's Juan Tabo location hosts a sausage and cheese tasting to go along with tappings of ALL of the Sierra Nevada 2016 Beer Camp Across America beers: Southern Table Beer, Imperial Session IPA (Imperial/Session cancel out to become IPA; leave the cute stuff to me, Sierra Nevada), Robust Stout, Rye with hibiscus, cocoa Brown Ale, and a Pale Ale based on an old, old recipe. These beers were brewed along with help from 31 different breweries, including beer geek darlings like Trillium.